Does a man (in this case, the alpha male of the troop) police or attempt to police a woman’s sexual agency? [why this matters]

+10

Is he rebuked for it, either directly (by a character onscreen) or indirectly (by how it is depicted)? [why this matters]

WILDCARD SCORE:0

Is there anything either positive or negative in the film’s representation of women not already accounted for here? (points will vary)

No.

TOTAL SCORE:+34

IS THE FILM’S DIRECTOR FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)

IS THE FILM’S SCREENWRITER FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)

BOTTOM LINE: Documentaries can be tricky to rate for female representation, and even trickier when the subjects aren’t even human. But here we explore the life of a troop of macaque monkeys via the travails of a female subject, some of which involves her becoming a mother, though that is far from the totality of it. And the film is narrated by a woman, Tina Fey; that’s a position of authority that documentaries typically grant to men. These may seem like little things, but they have a big impact.

NOTE: This is not a “review” of Monkey Kingdom! It is simply an examination of how well or how poorly it represents women. (A movie that represents women well can still be a terrible film; a movie that represents women poorly can still be a great film.) Read my review of Monkey Kingdom.